Idaho Identifies Struggling Schools
August 15, 2018
Clark Corbin reports that in Idaho State Department of Education officials recently released a list of the state’s 29 lowest-performing schools as part of the state’s ESSA plan. Schools were identified based on a variety of indicators—assessments, student growth, ELL proficiency, student surveys, graduation rates, college and career readiness—and those falling within the bottom 5% ended up on the list. This is the first time Idaho has identified low-performing schools—the state hasn’t had an accountability system in place for years. But under ESSA, Idaho now has a broad-based system based on “multiple academic indicators” which help identify struggling schools and get them the resources they need to improve.